Fritch, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fritch, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Fritch lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Fritch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fritch — the short answer
Fritch, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Fritch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fritch's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fritch
Each reading below is measured for Fritch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFritch runs about 222 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFritch sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Fritch is in
Fritch sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fritch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hutchinson County.
What Grows in Fritch
Every plant below cleared Fritch's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fritch?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Fritch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fritch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2060Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FRITCH GASCARD 220301Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ALLSUPS 101Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- POWELLS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BOBBYS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SANFORD COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- LOWES 29Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 1 BURGERS BESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAKE MEREDITH NATL REC AREAToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2069Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LAKE MEREDITH NATIONAL PARK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ZOLLARS WELDINGBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fritch's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Fritch.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of Fritch
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fritch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fritch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fritch, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Fritch. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fritch
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fritch average
Your land is one point inside Fritch
Everything above resolves to Fritch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Fritch Average
Fritch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fritch
- ●One soil character for all of Fritch
- ●Frost dates read at Fritch's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fritch's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fritch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fritch, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fritch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fritch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fritch average
How we know this about Fritch
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fritch’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Fritch
When does frost risk typically end in Fritch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fritch typically lands around Mar 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 20.
When is the first frost in Fritch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fritch typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fritch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fritch sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 24, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fritch?
The federal record around Fritch is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fritch?
From about Oct 8 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fritch's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fritch's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Fritch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fritch's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,038 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fritch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fritch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 7 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fritch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fritch's boundary and the 1,038 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fritch's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fritch's 1,038 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hutchinson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hutchinson County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hutchinson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fritch's 1,038 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fritch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,038 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Fritch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasFritch sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides